Imagine a car veering off a lonely mountain road and tumbling down the embankment. Minutes later, a sleek aircraft zooms in quietly at 230 miles an hour, tilts its wings and rotors up, hovers, and sets down just feet from the wreck. The pilot and a medic load the injured driver into the aircraft and zip back to a hospital at twice the speed of a conventional helicopter ambulance.

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Shifting through the mossy undergrowth of Germanys Black Forest, antennae raised and leg joints quietly clicking forward, OLE (pronounced oh-luh) is a St. Bernardsize bug on the prowl. But this mechanized insect isnt a scavenger—its a guardian.